Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Credence by Penelope Douglas

111 reviews

velmad's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

I want to know... WHO HURT YOU, PENELOPE DOUGLAS!

Fantastic book, while as taboo as they come.  The underlying theme of grief and abandonment was compelling and emotional.
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aussierach2002's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Read for a book club, not my kind of book. Very confronting, a good author but too much sadness, weird relationships and the characters are all mixed up mentally.
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danicorx's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I genuinely don’t know how to feel. I almost DNF it but i wanted to give this book a chance. The book had its highs and lows but the main subject matter was hard for me to stomach at times. Don’t get me wrong i LOVE a good spicy romance, but a family spicy romance ? All of the characters have issues and i would highly recommend therapy. I didn’t hate this book, but i don’t think i would read it again.
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k_wachter_17's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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taylormade4books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I actually really loved the story and theme of healing from past traumas. Without the added smut I probably would have given it 5 stars, not that I mind smut just feel it took away from the story some.
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hannahhagedorn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

So clearly there is something wrong with me but that’s for my therapist to dissect. This book has been on my tbr for years and I was so scared of it cause everyone said it was really bad and filled with incest. In legality terms maybe, in blood terms… no. Yes there’s some pretty taboo themes and questionable choices at times but I think we all need to remember that this isn’t reality. We are stepping into another world where things may not be as black and white as the pages of the book. This book is set up really well and as with most of this author’s works it has substance (as opposed to what all those one stat reviewers say). There is a plot and it’s actually pretty heartbreaking most of the time. I think the people reviewing low either bypass the trigger warnings or think they can handle more than they actually can. I liked the relationships Tiernan formed with Jake, Noah, and Kaleb. I think each of them had such distinct personalities that it almost felt like reading multiple books at once with one overarching plot. Almost like Devil’s Night but with the same fmc of course. I was in such a reading slump the past few weeks but I read this book super fast, and when I wasn’t reading I was thinking about what was gonna happen next. I don’t recommend reading before you’ve read the trigger warnings, I didn’t read them but I also haven’t been triggered by a book in the past and I’ve read much worse than this. Again that’s a problem for my therapist that I will not likely address. All the love, always <3
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teamwombat's review against another edition

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I genuinely don’t know how to rate this book. There’s grooming, incest, underage, multiple sexual assaults, threats of gang bangs and rape and that’s all in the opening chapters. The story then becomes an out of town/class girl trying to change a man who clearly should be in jail instead of getting therapy she actually needs. 

I mean to say, it’s awful… but I read it. Probably shouldn’t have… but I read it. I read the whole thing and I wish I hadn’t. 

The ending is a very convenient 5 years on happy ever after that frankly no one needed or buying. 

It’s bad. It’s just bad. 

There should just be plain old warnings for this, not just trigger ones. 


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georgialouise1997's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This is the worst thing I’ve ever read, but I have to give it two stars cos I couldn’t put it down. 

I honestly think I read things which I’ll need to talk to a therapist about. Traumatised…
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darcys_vega's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.25

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beckys_bookcase's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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